Alex Sardar has an unenviable task of helping build civil society in Armenia. He has, too, an enviable attitude, required for his success and for Armenia's hoped-for better future.
Living in Armenia for nearly nine years, Sardar has learned to appreciate "the process" of helping create change. Whether or not he sees the end result is no less important than being part of the effort.
Arriving in Armenia in April 2003, Sardar came by way of California, but was born in Iran and lived in Germany until he was 15.
His family, he says, were initially "political immigrants" fleeing post-revolution Iran for Germany, and then "economic immigrants" who left Germany for the United States.
Himself a beneficiary of cultures in which civil society was a guarantee (i.e., opportunities for immigrants), Sardar is now at the helm of Counterpart International, a United States Agency for International Development-sponsored agency that helps Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) by issuing grants for initiatives that are seen as building blocks for democracy.
Filling two positions at Counterpart—Chief of Party, and Vice President of Democracy Programs—Sardar leads a management team that links qualified NGOs with U.S. State Department funds available through USAID's overall goals for Armenia.
When Sardar came to Armenia, at 29, it was to work with another USAID subcontractor, DAI (Development Alternatives Incorporated). In two and a half years as deputy manager, he helped the National Assembly of Armenia develop better public relations, including creating its website (where common citizens have access to information previously unavailable).
In nearly seven years at Counterpart, however, he has become recognized not only as a facilitator of ideals, but also an advocate of the civil rights that are at the foundation of his position. On March 1, 2008, Sardar was one of the first civilians on the bloody scene at Yerevan's Opera House. Police and soldiers were still cleaning up the site of early-morning law enforcement-protestor clashes while Sardar was walking around the square and making telephone calls, collecting and reporting information.
That day was a low point for Armenia's development in every conceivable form and hardly an example of progress as a "civil society."
It was, too, a disturbing illustration of the need for empowerment of citizenry, including through the sorts of NGOs that Counterpart encourages.
Counterpart's Civil Advocacy Support Program, for example, supports the Goris Teachers' Union NGO, which was created by a group of teachers in the Syunik province, who developed public school student governments, among other activities.
Another Counterpart-supported NGO has been at the forefront of consumer rights issues in Armenia. Other grantees have included organizations supporting rights of the disabled, and advocates for ecological responsibility.
Sardar (like most of the international aid community) works in a sphere where "grant eaters" must be separated from deserving applicants, when time comes to spend U.S. taxpayer dollars. To sift the well-intended from the opportunists, grants are often issued based on an applicant's "deliverables"—i.e., what will the money buy, and how does that fit the goals of the donor.
But in the sometimes nebulous areas such as civil society, results become less tangible than something that can be check-marked in a square box of a performance report.
Nonetheless, his considerable time in Armenia has convinced Sardar to be "more concerned about the process than the end goal." His aim, now, he says is to "move Armenian NGOs away from the project-implementing mentality and into (establishing) organizations that become institutions."
For example, the consumer rights organization
didn't simply become a start-up grantee that disappeared when the funding period elapsed. It has, rather, become a go-to organization for issues such as labeling of imported goods and enforcement of expiration dates on food products, etc., and has established a telephone hotline where consumers may sound the alarm when they feel their rights have been abused.
Learning not to expect immediate "deliverables" has contributed to Sardar's endurance in a dynamic field made more challenging in the context of Armenia's continued status as a country in transition. Finding comfort, he says, requires that a person finds his role in that context of process and outcome.
Finding fulfillment
"I was not," Sardar says, "one of those people intent on moving to Armenia at any cost."
He is, however, among diasporans who have found career opportunities, through which it is possible to shape national identity.
"Being plucked and parachuted" (as he puts it) from Iran to Germany to the U.S. (Glendale) by age 15 instilled early on "a set of skills at being adaptable."
As Armenia itself adapts to global necessities, being intellectually, socially and psychologically flexible is a required survival skill for any who move here.
"In Armenia, you wake up in the morning and your day is going to be so unpredictable, you don't know what you're going to face," Sardar says. "You get to use a lot of talents that otherwise might go untapped."
And, resilience is required for the inevitable letdowns. For Sardar, disappointment has come in realizing that Armenia missed an opportunity to be ahead of where it finds itself today.
"The development we've seen (since independence) is not proportionate to the amount of known resources that have come into this country," he says. Prompted for a clarification, he adds: "That is a way of saying that I wish corruption would not have been so prevalent."
Having resided in three countries and constantly on business trips to Egypt, Afghanistan, Yemen and so on, Sardar has a refined perspective on his sense of place.
"The U.S. is my 'home of record,'" he says. "I think, though, that Armenia will become my 'home of record.'"
His endorsement of Armenia as home, however, comes with a caveat: "As soon as I no longer find myself fulfilled professionally, I am out of here."
Staying here, though, has gotten more comfortable through the links now afforded newcomers to Armenia, which may seem superficial but are known basics to survival for the transplanted.
Asked if he misses anything from life before Armenia, Sardar says: "Today there is nothing."
He used to miss cream cheese, sushi, access to books, newspapers... Cream cheese can now be found, and while sushi is hit-and-miss, even Armenia is no longer a dark exit on the information superhighway.
"When the Ipad came out, I was the happiest person on earth," Sardar jokes, saying that he can now (and thanks to increased Internet speed in Armenia) indulge his appetite for information while on the move. And, with Kindle (online literature delivery system), he has learned to enjoy books even if they don't have pages to turn.
He is, he says, an optimist, believing that Armenia will one day build on the foundation that is now being laid by those with patience to do so. But: "It would require remarkable hubris for me to say that what I am doing is having an influence. Years from now, I hope it proves to have an impact on the way this country will move forward."
